How to Make Smart Financial Moves in Any Climate

Summary

Podcast Summary: “How to Make Smart Financial Moves in Any Climate”

Podcast: Your Next Move by Inc. Magazine (with Capital One Business)
Date: September 23, 2025
Host: Mike Hoffman, Editor-in-Chief, Inc.
Guests:

• Baba Rivera, Founder of Ceremonia
• Brigham Hyde, CEO & Co-founder of Atropos Health

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Episode Overview

This episode of Your Next Move explores how entrepreneurs can make savvy financial and fundraising decisions regardless of the prevailing economic climate. Featuring two accomplished founders—Baba Rivera and Brigham Hyde—it offers practical insights into raising capital, choosing investors, optimizing cash flow, and maintaining founder control. The conversation also highlights experiences unique to women founders and dives into balancing business growth with personal and organizational resilience.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Company Introductions and Missions

[01:02 – 02:22]

• Ceremonia is a clean hair wellness brand rooted in Chilean beauty rituals and focused on holistic hair care using natural ingredients.
  • Raised $11.5M, including a $10M Series A ([01:24])
• Atropos Health automates high-quality real-world evidence in healthcare using AI, addressing the lack of clinical evidence behind many healthcare decisions.
  • Raised $64M ([02:20])

2. Fundraising Obstacles and Gender Dynamics

[02:23 – 04:14]

• Baba Rivera shared early fundraising challenges, including personal bias against women founders, particularly around pregnancy:

  “I had an investor straight out tell me that I shouldn’t have kids in at least five years if I was serious about this company. … I’m on a personal mission to change that.” – Baba Rivera ([02:31])

• Brigham Hyde reflected on how family responsibilities can be leveraged for focus and performance, noting:

  “Amongst my leadership team, we have a total of 15 kids under eight. … When you have people in that stage of life, it can drive great focus and great performance.” – Brigham Hyde ([04:03])

3. Fundraising Strategy & Picking Investors

[04:14 – 05:45]

• Brigham emphasized being “choosy” about investors, picking those with aligned, long-term visions—not just those offering the most money:

  “We got offered a lot more money and I said no … because you have to keep track of what the money’s for and what you’re going to be able to produce and value.” – Brigham Hyde ([04:28])

• There’s an advantage in aligning fundraising with business “highs,” not just out of necessity.

4. Use of Early Funding

[05:45 – 06:38]

• Ceremonia:
  • Spent early investment on product R&D and D2C marketing—responding to demand to build a full product line.
  • Later invested heavily in a Sephora launch ([05:48]).
• Atropos Health:
  • Focused on product innovation and disciplined allocation of investment capital.

5. The Role of Advisors and Networks

[06:38 – 08:29]

• Baba credited former founders-turned-angels as the best advisors, highlighting their humility and practical support:

  “Former founders turned angel investors have been the greatest advisors to me… They know the journey.” – Baba Rivera ([06:57])

• Brigham runs “R&D Days,” informal sessions with investors and advisors to discuss products—not just financials. He encourages activating founder and investor networks:

  “It works really well. … Every time I do it, somebody … introduces a customer, introduces a partner. So it’s a good way to activate that network.” – Brigham Hyde ([08:30])

• Peer founder chats are vital for sharing informal advice.

6. Balancing Fundraising and Business Operations

[09:12 – 10:16]

• Fundraising is time-intensive and can paralyze core business operations, especially for sole founders.

  • Baba only raises when business momentum is high, not out of desperation:

    “I like to fundraise when we’re coming off a high or where we have a big opportunity … versus fundraising when you’re running out of capital.” – Baba Rivera ([09:28])

• Brigham emphasized intentional planning to balance periods focused on fundraising and operational leadership ([10:18]).

7. Extending Runway and Managing Cash Flow

[11:17 – 12:39]

• Ceremonia used Shopify Capital and Settle to extend runway without further dilution ([11:24]).
• Brigham recommended early attention to invoicing, contracts, and cash flow management as part of a CFO mindset. Structuring healthy contracts is essential:

  “Understanding how you build a healthy contract versus one that is going to make your business unhealthy—and being firm on those terms...” – Brigham Hyde ([11:47])

8. Building Investor Relationships

[13:23 – 14:43]

• Baba advocates frequent, informal, and authentic communication with investors:

  “When I was able to take down the guard and share more often ... it really changed the game. ... Now my board is so ingrained into my business.” – Baba Rivera ([13:35])

• Brigham values open debate and diverse perspectives—like Lincoln’s “team of rivals”—to improve decision-making ([14:43]).

9. Managing Control and Investor Alignment

[15:11 – 17:04]

• Both founders stress being values-aligned and maintaining sufficient founder control.
  • Baba protects board votes and equity in every round ([16:58]).
  • Brigham uses independent board members for balance but stresses upfront alignment over rigid controls.

10. Future Funding Strategies and Market Timing

[18:08 – 20:10]

• Baba: Next focus is profit-driven growth and seeking Series B investors with deep industry experience ([18:22]).
• Brigham: Eyes Series C as a pivotal point—deciding between IPO, further growth, or strategic partnerships, with close attention to market cycles and emerging opportunities in AI healthcare ([18:47]).

11. Audience Q&A Highlights

[22:06 – 25:34]

• Finding the Right Investors:

  • Start with your founder network and industry-focused communities ([22:13]).
  • Consider regional VC landscapes and consult early customers about preferred investors ([22:29]).

• Crafting the Perfect Pitch:

  • Clearly articulate your mission, path to execution, and why you are uniquely suited to solve the problem ([23:08]).

    “One piece that a lot of founders forget is why they are uniquely positioned to solve that exact problem.” – Baba Rivera ([23:27])

• Post-Seed Scaling:

  • Secure key anchor customers who can act as early advocates ([23:53]).
  • Study your “super customers” to deeply understand early traction ([24:23]).

• Cash Flow vs. External Capital:

  • Use cash flow to grow when the investment climate is unfavorable; it prevents dilution and allows experimentation ([24:48]).

    “Cash flow is always a good supplement to external VC because it doesn’t dilute you as a founder.” – Baba Rivera ([24:48])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You never know what you’re capable of. … I tend to think that challenging yourself is actually the way to drive some of the best results.”
  – Brigham Hyde ([03:38])
• “For me, I’m on a personal mission to change that.”
  – Baba Rivera, on women and parental bias in entrepreneurship ([03:28])
• “Pick really great partners, who are both experienced and long term view, who really align to what we do.”
  – Brigham Hyde ([04:28])
• “That’s not how you build any relationship, right? ... I have my group chat with the founder community. I have the group chat with the board. ... There is something about just like little snippets of very digestible communication.”
  – Baba Rivera ([13:35])
• “If you get to the point where [control] is a problem, you’ve made a mistake somewhere earlier. ... Getting that alignment piece right is more important than the rules.”
  – Brigham Hyde ([17:04])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:08] — Baba Rivera introduces Ceremonia
• [01:27] — Brigham Hyde introduces Atropos Health
• [02:31] — Baba discusses investor bias against mothers
• [04:28] — Brigham on picking investors and funding discipline
• [05:48] — Baba on using investment for innovation and Sephora launch
• [06:57] — Baba on value of angel investors who are founders
• [08:30] — Brigham outlines “R&D Day” for activating advisor networks
• [09:28] — Baba on timing fundraising when business is strong
• [11:24] — Baba on Shopify Capital and Settle to extend runway
• [13:35] — Baba on authentic board relationships
• [16:58] — Baba discusses protecting founder control
• [18:22] — Baba and Brigham on Series B/C plans and investor fit
• [22:13] — Advice for finding the right investors
• [23:27] — Pitching: Emphasize your unique advantage
• [24:23] — How to scale post-seed: Understanding super-customers
• [24:48] — Cash flow v. outside capital

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Conclusion

This episode offers an honest look at the mechanics of scaling a business through both capital and community. Key takeaways include:

• The importance of aligning with the right investors and advisors
• The value of authentic, informal communication with stakeholders
• Practical strategies for managing cash flow, maintaining control, and leveraging founder networks
• Recognizing and countering gender bias in fundraising
• Timing fundraising with business milestones, not desperation

Both founders underscore that discipline, intentionality, and authenticity—coupled with enduring relationships—are essential for navigating any financial climate.

Transcript

[A]

With the Venture X Business Card from Capital One, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase. Plus, the Venture X Business card has no preset spending limit, so your purchasing power can adapt to meet your business needs. Capital One, what's in your wallet?

[B]

Foreign hi, I'm Mike Hoffman, editor in chief of Inc. And welcome to your next move, produced by Inc. And Capital One Business. Now, as we all know, money is tight right now, unless maybe you're an AI. Markets are volatile. Every financial decision matters more than ever right now. So today we're joined by two leaders who know exactly how to raise capital amid economic uncertainty. Baba Rivera is the founder of Ceremonia. And Brigham Hyde is the CEO and co founder of Atropos Health. Brigham. Baba, welcome.

[C]

Thank you so much for having us.

[D]

Thanks for having us.

[B]

So first, let's tell our viewers a little bit about your companies. Baba, let's start with you. What is Ceremonia and what does it do?

[C]

Ceremonia is a clean hair wellness brand that is inspired by the rituals that I grew up with as the daughter of a Chilean hairdresser. And we're really focused on treating hair concerns at the root, powered by natural ingredients.

[B]

And you've raised so far $11.5 million, right? Including a 10 million Series A?

[C]

Yes, that's correct.

[B]

Great. And Brigham, tell us about your company.

[D]

Yeah, we are all about automating high quality, real world evidence, both for care and for research. When you go in to see your clinician, how are they making a decision on what to treat you with? They rely classically on things like guidelines and trials, but there's just not enough of them. Only about 14% of everyday decisions have high quality evidence behind them. And using AI techniques and a whole bunch of engineering, we've found a way to automate the generation of that, helping to fill that evidence gap.

[B]

And so when you say healthcare, AI is your end user, the doctor, Is it the. Is it a researcher or is it a patient?

[D]

Yeah, we have thousands of clinicians using our product right now. We also work with life science companies to advance research. And really it's about finding a way to get that high quality evidence in their hands so they can make decisions either on what trial to run or drug to develop or what treatment to give you in the office.

[B]

And you've raised a total of 64 million. Do I have that right?

[D]

That's correct.

[B]

When you sort of were initially out there pitching your company, what was the most difficult part of the pitching process or what was an obstacle you had to overcome? Baba, let's start with you.

[C]

So many. I mean, just by definition, you're going to receive more no's than yes. Like, that's just like how it works. Right. So it really is a numbers game, pun intended, in the sense that you have to speak to a lot of people and for most of them, it's not going to be a fit. And that can be quite discouraging. It really takes a toll on you. And I think the biggest obstacle for me was that I was also building a family. I had just found out I was pregnant and I was excited and nervous about it, and I had an investor straight out tell me that I shouldn't have kids in at least five years if I was serious about this company. So that was definitely a real obstacle. And I think maybe one that's maybe more exclusive to women. And I think today it is so important for me to share that because I think there are a lot of women who feel extremely discouraged by this stereotypical idea of what it means to raise capital, what it means to run a business. And I feel like for me, I'm on a personal mission to change that.

[B]

Yeah. And you both actually have four kids who are the same ages, right, Brigham? Did anybody ever ask you about that?

[D]

No. Although.

[B]

So maybe we have some evidence here today.

[D]

What I. What I would say about that. You never know what you're capable of. I've found this period for my wife and I to be great tests, but you also level up your game. I tend to think that challenging yourself is actually the way to drive some of the best results. You got to take care of yourself too, and your family. But I actually view it as a positive amongst my leadership team. We have a total of 15 kids under eight.

[B]

Wow.

[D]

And it's actually weirdly, kind of the DNA of our company. So I would tell that VC to actually look at it the other way around. When you have people in that stage of life can drive great focus and great performance now.

[B]

So you sort of spun the company a bit out of Stanford. Right. And you're obviously in healthcare AI. So what was your fundraising journey like? Knowing that this was like, you know, you were part of a very fundraising friendly community and in a hot spot space at a, at a key moment.

[D]

I think when we started, it was the, the heydays of 2021. Big valuations, a lot of money flowing around, a lot of liquidity in the system. I think we were really thoughtful at that point about two things. One, there are probably too many VCs out there, so we wanted to pick really great partners who are both experienced and long term view who really align to what we do. Being a little choosy with who you take some of those early checks from is a critical thing. I think some first time entrepreneurs miss. I think the other thing is that, you know, we got offered a lot more money and I said no to a lot of money because. And cap those rounds because you have to keep track of what the money's for and what you're going to be able to produce and value economic, financial, you know, key sort of milestones in that time period. Because raising money is fun announcing around but you immediately start the clock to what's the next step. But ultimately being thoughtful about the spend and how you build it's. It's better discipline I think in this cycle for all of us. Not to say that there's not a time to go big and when you really catch that product market fit, you know, fueling that with venture growth can be the right move. But we try to be thoughtful about partners and what's the money for? Know when you really want to go big. Don't pull the trigger too soon.

[B]

Baba, what did you spend your early investment on?

[C]

Yeah, for us it was a lot about innovation. Product R and D. We launched with just one SKU and we immediately started getting requests from our customers for a full routine. Customers fell in love with our first product which was a scalp oil and then they wanted know what shampoo should I use, what conditioner. So for us we felt like we had a little bit of accelerated path towards really building out the full ceremonial routine. So R and D was a big part of it. Also paid marketing. This was during the time that the algorithm was really working for you. So and we were a D2C brand, so those were, you know, great investments. Early on after our Series A, most of our investments went to Sephora. Launching with a mega retailer like Sephora is extremely costly. It can really, they can really transform your business but it's not without investments. So that was a big focus for us.

[B]

So when you've raised money and you're moving into bigger customers than you've had before, who's advising you? Who is it? Is it cfo? Did you build your team right away? Are there board members, obviously your investors or advisors? Can you talk about who's sort of helping you think through the next step?

[C]

For me, honestly, the most helpful advisors have been the early angels and most of them are founders themselves. I really cannot thank the former founders turned angel investors enough for their, you know, help they also, I think, have a humbleness to them. If you've built something before, you just know that it's really hard. No one became a successful business without going through a lot of hardships. So former founders turned angel investors have been the greatest advisors to me. They're also the ones who, whenever I've closed around, they will text me and be like, now take a week vacation. I'm like, what? No. Like, I just raised money. And they're like, no, because you're going to be off to the races. This is the time to take some time off. Like, they just know the journey. Whereas I feel like sometimes professional VCs, they only know what it looks like in a spreadsheet after the fact versus the operational components that lead up to those numbers.

[B]

Brigham, what about you?

[D]

Yeah, I completely agree with that. Something we do, which is maybe a little irregular outside of the cadence of board meetings, which as we've grown and added more investors, get bigger. We still do twice yearly. I would call it an R and D day. Public companies do this where they maybe invite you on site. They talk more about what they're building than the pure financial results. I copied that model, but we do it even as a small company and we'll invite that whole set of angel investors on down advisors. We actually could spend time talking a little bit more about what's going on day to day, the products and things like that.

[C]

That's so smart. I might steal that.

[D]

You should steal that. It works really well. And every time I do it, somebody in that call says, you got to talk to X. Introduces a customer, introduces a partner. So it's a good way to activate that network. And they're all a mix of investors and founders. I. I would add that, you know, founder peers are a great group. You know, they're going through the same thing. They can see something maybe you haven't seen or have had an experience you haven't had yet. So the group chats are real and, and necessary. But even doing that formal setting where we're not talking about financials here, let's talk everything else and get input from your community. And you're as strong as your team and your community that is built around you.

[B]

Many founders will say when they're out raising money, that that sort of takes over their time, right? And they have much less time to spend on operating the business. How do you balance those two needs? The need to get cash for the future, raise capital for the future, and then the need to run the business today. Baba, let's Start with you?

[C]

Yeah. I mean, I'm a sole founder and I don't have a fully fledged executive team. So for me it is extremely paralyzing and as a result extremely costly for the business. Because if I'm paralyz, you know, speaking to everyone else but the team, there is a huge disconnect. So for me, I've made sure to honestly only go out and fundraise when I feel like I have a good opportunity to fundraise. It's really difficult when you're fundraising in an uphill battle. So that's why I love to talk about cash flow too. Are there other ways where you can basically have a healthy cash flow to keep your business alive to get to the next milestone where you will be better off fundraising? So I like to fundraise when we're coming off a high or where we have a big opportunity. When we sign Sephora, that's when we fundraised our series A versus fundraising when you're running out of capital.

[B]

Brigham, what about you?

[D]

It's a great question. It's a hard one because it is important to maintain those relationships even with people who haven't invested yet over time and give them check ins. What I try and do with my leadership team is we try to plan the year out the best you can and understand that there's different times, that the operating business will need different things out of me. Sometimes it's got we're going commercial push here, we're gonna have a bunch of conferences. We need the CEO there. I have to make time for that and separate that from investment time. Same thing with product and R and D. I just got back from an off site we ran in Ohio where we gathered and talked only product, which is not something I get to do every day, particularly interfacing with the investment community. But you gotta carve out those blocks, be intentional about it, know where you are in the year and in the process of your rounds and then plan that way. That that's I've come up with. You still at some point have to figure out how to manage inbound existing and keep everybody on pace. And I think that's part of the juggling that that goes on. Being a founder.

[B]

Yeah. Now, Baba, you mentioned sort of thinking about cash flow. What is one specific decision that you've made with your business to help extend Runway?

[C]

We use Shopify capital and settle, which has been extremely helpful. And honestly, I can't understand why we weren't using that before. It just extends our Runway without having to go out to investors and without paralyzing me. It's a very simple way to operate the business and gives us more buffer.

[D]

I think that's a really good point. I think something that early founders don't think about soon enough with their CFO hat on are just sort of all the ways you can sort of build infrastructure around your invoicing your cash position, your debt. There's a lot of great options out there. Your banking partners are always there to do that as well. But thinking about that sooner, usually a good idea so that you have control over it. You know where everything's going. So I, I'd recommend that one. When you think about cash flow in a B2B business, what we're really talking to is what types of contract structures and pricing are we able to develop and launch. That's the maturity process when you're dealing with big pharma, for instance. So understanding, you know, how you build a healthy contract versus one that is going to make your business unhealthy and being firm on those terms because you commit to long term deals sometimes and it's a bad deal that can really hurt your business.

[B]

Do you have one piece of advice for someone out there who's, who's wondering, how can I make my contracts a little bit more favorable?

[D]

Ultimately it comes back to value discussion. Right? And understand the value of the person you're selling to. Are you saving them money somewhere? Are you generating new revenue for them? Are you changing their own position, how they think about value? Once you understand that, you can really build deals around that structure. You know, I start my pitch with my large customers saying like, what are your objectives this year financially? What are your objectives product wise? What are you trying to get to? And then I try and align structures to that. You got to talk to them as business people running their business and understand how it can make it a dual win. And that helps you shape those designs.

[B]

Talk about your relationship with investors, whether it's an angel investor or a vc, how do you develop that relationship? How do you nurture it? And what are some of the conversations, even some of the tough conversations that you have with them?

[C]

Yeah, I feel like it was a little bit of a learning curve for me. I think for the longest time I was treating our board or like investors as this. Like, you know, I have to make sure everything is so buttoned up and like the materials have to be perfect before I send them and I need to say the right thing and all of this. And, and then when you think about it, that's not how you build any relationship, right? Like, imagine if you were, you know, operating like that to your wife like that. That's not how you build real relationships. I think for me, when I was able to really just, you know, take down the guard and just share more often versus, you know, seldom imperfect, really changed the game because now my board is so ingrained into my business, they get little snippets of updates all the time. We have a group chat. I have my group chat with the founder, community, I have the group chat with the board. And there is something about just like little snippets of very digestible communication. It also makes you feel like you are a team because ultimately they are part of the team. They're. They've invested their capital, they've invested their time like they are on my team. So I feel much more empowered today to bring challenges in an unfiltered way and then use the time we have as a board to actually problem solve.

[D]

You know, in terms of how to handle difficult conversations, I like sort of the Lincoln Cabinet approach. You know, you want people with different opinions, different views, team of rivals and team of rivals, let them argue a little bit. But you as the CEO, sort of set it up, let them go, and then help everybody process through what the decisions might be. But ultimately it's about building trust and relationships, and that matters over time, you know. And so making sure you're spending time doing that is important.

[B]

So obviously, when you raise money, your investors have expectations about some, at some point having a liquidity event, whatever that looks like. How do you talk through those expectations with your investors? Brigham, let's start with you.

[D]

To me, it goes back to that point of being choosy, which really starts with the mission of what we're trying to accomplish. And outside of financial return, how will we know we've accomplished that? That doesn't mean that running it as an independent business or a private business forever means that's the way to achieve that. We try to put it through that lens every time. Now, funds have cycles. Investors have focus areas, of course, but by choosing a group that again, a little bit longer view as opposed to a tighter fund cycle, lets us have those discussions pretty openly. Ultimately, for me, you know, this is about building something that really changes a part of health care and change all of healthcare is hard, but can we try and achieve that? If there are business structures that work better to accomplish that goal, I'll be the first one to bring that up. But in the meantime, having that alignment through mission, why we're doing this beyond generating a return is the key starting point for me.

[B]

I know Baba, you also were looking for investors who shared your mission or understood your mission. So how do you talk about expectations with your investors?

[C]

Yeah, I think being value aligned is really important. And something that I found is that having investors that really believe in you as a founder is key because ultimately when you're an early stage company like you can show whatever you want in your pitch deck, but if they don't believe in you being the force that's going to drive that mission, it's really difficult to build a fruitful relationship. So for me it's been important to protect my control of the company. And that's been something that I've always made sure to negotiate in every round that we have raised.

[B]

And how do you do that and talk about that?

[C]

Having a double vote in the board and making sure my ownership doesn't go below certain levels and things like that.

[B]

Brigham, how do you think about control?

[D]

Yeah, I mean, gotta watch that cap table math every time. But I think ultimately it's also having a conversation about how you want to govern a company. You know, we've brought in a series of investors including strategics. I want them to be involved. I don't want it to be simply my decision making and you know, I want the collaboration at this stage of the business. Earlier on we were completely founder led through the board. But at the right time, you know, there's value add for those groups. You know, ultimately, you know, voting preferences, board control. You know, we use an independent board member to break ties between the preferred holders and the, and the common holders, which I think is a good structure. And, but, but ultimately if you get to the point where that's a problem, you've made a mistake somewhere earlier. And getting that alignment piece right is more important than the rules that govern whatever voting. But as founders you do have to think about it. You want to maintain control as long as you want that piece to be part of your day to day and then plan for governance afterwards.

[B]

Now as you think about maybe the next round of funding you might raise someday, Series C, Series B I imagine. Is there something you'll be looking for that is different from, from what you've done so far in terms of the type of investor or how you would use the money, or just how you would approach the relationship?

[C]

For me, when we raise our Series B, we'll go into a lot of what you're talking about more this like commercialization, like mass growth and whereas I feel like to this date, it's been more important to have a lot of trust in the founder from the investors, et cetera. So when we raise our Series B, I believe we'll go with an investor that has a lot of experience in our field and who has sort of like done this journey before for us.

[D]

Series C is an interesting breakpoint because you start to make a choice, are we going towards ipo? Is there really something to double down on? You know, I've also spent a decent of my life operating private equity in this market. Inorganic is sometimes an interesting way to go, you know. So as we talk to the community about that, there's different investors that like to do different things. So I think depending on what their perspective is. I'm also watching the market because I think we have to look at is the cycle we're in, where are we in it, what's happening in capital markets, when's the right time to head for more liquidity or double down in a certain area? I think my hope, being in the AI space, we're really excited about the potential of agentic orchestration at the provider center right now, which if you follow what's been announced by Microsoft and AWS and others, Big Tech is finally sort of building a bridge for these AI application companies potentially to go to market without requiring the ehr, which is forever been a little bit of a blockade in health tech. So we're watching that. Is this the right moment for that? You know, are there inorganic opportunities that we just must have because it can accelerate us and does that achieve our mission, which for us is generating personalized evidence for everybody. So what's the best path? And you know, C is a fun time to think through those problems.

[B]

Timing is everything, right?

[D]

That's right.

[B]

As you think about what's going on in your business, whether it relates to capital or any other part of the business, what's your next move? We'll start with you, Baba.

[C]

Our next move I would say is to really accelerate the business from a profitable standpoint. So we started off as a startup, obviously we're not profitable now. We're heading towards profitability and then we want to accelerate growth from a profitable.

[B]

Lens and bring them.

[D]

Lots of exciting announcements coming from us shortly, both on the sort of science side of AI. Some exciting things we're going to be showing about generating Physician Trust in this generative AI environment that's been a little bit lacking. Key partners, customers, a bunch coming. Whether that leads to a big funding announcement, I'll let you all stay tuned for that, but it's time for growth and and I also think we're heading towards a chance to change healthcare pretty significantly. The pieces are aligning. We'd love to be a big part of it.

[B]

Great. Pablo Rivera Brigham Hyde, thanks so much and we'll continue this conversation in a minute.

[A]

Here's a tip for growing your business. Get the Venture X Business Card from Capital One and start earning unlimited double miles on air every purchase. That's right. With unlimited double miles, the more your business spends, the more miles you earn. Plus, the venturex Business Card has no preset spending limit, so your purchasing power can adapt to meet your business needs. The VentureX business card also includes access to over a thousand airport lounges. Just imagine where the Venture X Business Card from Capital One can take your business Capital One what's in your wallet? Terms and conditions apply. Find out [e-mail].

[B]

Here are some of our most popular reader questions. How can I find a network with the right investors who can support my business? Baba, let's start with you.

[C]

My best advice is to start with a founder network. I truly vetted all of my investors through founders. I think the founder community in your specific industry is usually extremely generous with advice because founders just have each other's back.

[D]

I think that's a great suggestion. I also think think of your regionality where you are, there will be a community there that you can find lots of great sort of events to go to start to figure out the lay of the land. I would also put that through your industry. So thinking about where the VCs are that follow your industry, talk to those potential customers early on who who do they like in the space? Who they invested with before. I think those are all great places to start.

[B]

Okay, our next audience question is about crafting the perfect pitch, right? And so what is a piece of advice you would have for a founder who's out there hoping to make a pitch to investors on how to do it right? Brigham, let's start with you.

[D]

Real big, clear, concise goal and mission that you're trying to achieve and then lay out from that big idea how you will achieve it, what you need to build and have that build to what you're asking for in capital. If that that big idea becomes easily explainable and de risked almost in how you might execute it.

[C]

Those are very fundamental ideas obviously outlining what problem you're solving and how you're solving it. But I also think one piece that a lot of founders forget about is why they are uniquely positioned to solve that Exact problem. So I would spend some time in talking about your own unfair advantage in that problem solving.

[B]

Well, that's great. So our third audience question is this. Once you've managed to raise initial capital, your seed round, what is the best way to propel your business into the next phase?

[D]

I think proving the principle on product market fit even early on and getting that first one or two key customers. And I would focus on really thinking about the profile of those first couple customers. And I'd focus in. You don't need to have a huge sales effort and hit every name out there. Pick three to five that would be really meaningful and prove your value could also speak for you in the market. So having an anchor customer who will then go to bat for you with the next customer, that's a crucial first step.

[B]

Baba, what about you?

[C]

Yeah, I think understanding why those early customers are shopping you and why they're choosing you and why they stick to your product or company or whatever service you're in is really crucial. I think in the early days, it's more about understanding the super customers versus going for volume.

[B]

Our last audience question is about cash flow. So to what extent should a company use cash flow to grow their business versus raising outside capital?

[C]

It really depends on the goal, I think in today's financial climate, I think growing your business with cash flow is smart. If you can't raise the round that you know, you can maybe in a few years. So, yeah, I think cash flow is always a good supplement to external VC because it doesn't dilute you as a founder.

[D]

Yeah, I would agree. I mean, we again launched with an anchor customer. It really gave us 12 to 18 months to kind of figure out where our fit was while experimenting with a real customer. Cash flow is always great. And the point I think when you go to raise money is you really want to be. Have conviction, be confident, you know where you fit and this money is so that we scale to that. So cash flow can be a great way to experiment in those early days.

[B]

I'm Brigham Hyde of Atropos Health. Liam Baba Rivera Ceremony. And thanks so much for being on your next move.

[C]

Thank you.

[D]

Thank you, Mike.

[B]

We hope today's conversation encourages you to strategize and adapt as your business grows. Tune in next time for more industry leaders, breakthrough businesses, and the strategies you need to make your next move. I'm Mike Hoffman, editor in chief of Inc. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next.